Heh, we can’t do that just yet as the ptr forums aren’t open yet. But I can say that Winter Flurry is clunky as hell.
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Out of couriousity, have they ever done this before with leaving the old version of the item unchanged and only making the changed version drop from new kills?
Hoping they at least keep it as is and let us have our old ES out of seasons, but i don’t want to be fooling myself if they’ve never done that before.
Yes, but ALL way back when ROS first launched. It perplexes me why they did ES the way they did. It’s a bad change, done equally badly. Honestly, you can tell the Classic Games team doesn’t even play (at least) a Wizard.
It’s just bad, all around.
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They have. Normally the only changes that are retroactive (meaning that the changes would affect all existing items) are only the non-craftable sets. Most balance changes that pertains to existing legendary items aren’t retroactive and you would need to find new copies.
For example some older items that I still have:
- Etched Sigil (without the 125-150% damage boost)
- Frost Burn gloves (when the gloves 15-20% bonus to cold damage wasn’t a legendary power)
- Puzzle Ring (one that summons a random goblin to kill)
That said, there’s been a few exceptions to this such as when they added the 1 second delay to Deathwish and Etched Sigil (that change actually affected all existing Deathwishes and Etched Sigils) when we got the Typhon set; that nerf already harmed a lot of wizard builds (especially speed farming builds); which is why I’m so baffled by these new changes which pretty much killed a lot of our channeling builds.
Not impressed by the changes… Not even close.
Shortlist of mechanics changes based on testing today on stream. It’s not much, just a few quick tests, but if you’re looking for more info on how these items behave, hopefully this will help:
https://cratic.net/2610-ptr-mechanics
Nothing huge or completely game changing found, but a few neat tidbits that aren’t in the tooltips for sure, like durations, dynamic multi for hydras and base rune procs from etched sigil twister.
If I’ve overlooked something obvious let me know , and I will try and test it.
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Same. Too weak. Way to mess up the channeling builds…
I wanted to test solo push DMO with Arcane Orb and so I did. Since i mostly play wiz i actually had pretty good gear available for that spec.
this is the spec i tried: d3planner/539487960
(for details i guess u can check me on Leaderboard)
my char: 3.6k paragon (hc) | stricken 150, trapped 135, esoteric 100. basically fully augmented gear with average gemlvl of ~100.
I tried to push as high as i could and 116 was my dead end so far. I highly doubt this spec will play any role for pushing, same for groups and t16. Maybe for bounties (lol)…
my feelings about it:
-
very squishy against physical damage, procced several times out of the blue, even with bubble and halo buff up. had to weave in unity and esoteric to feel somewhat save.
considering it was just a 116 with higher plvl i would wanna reach in a season it’s kinda disappointing..
Aquila wasn’t an options either, since it wears off when spamming arcane orbs during cold circle, thats when u are most vulnerable in this spec. -
Wizardspike: the autocast frozen orb from wizardspike is basically a gimmick in my opinion. sometimes u are lucky and get 3 in a row, then on CoE cold circles u often end up without generating any. It’s not a reliable source of damage considering it is so random and doesn’t get affected by area damage. please proof me wrong though.
-
damage: the damage is actually not so bad, IF u actually manage to stand still and unload your frozen orbs during cold circle of CoE. However, since i took so much damage left and right i could hardly do that. maybe i should just drop squirts since it was hardly up anyways…
my personal conclusio: kinda disappointed as it is. for t16 keyfarm too slow, for pushing and grps too squishy and not enough damage. as far as i am concerned i consider all Arcane Orb runes (beside Frozen Orb) totally useless.
By the way: I also tried same the setup with arcane orbit instead of frozen orb since i actually like the fact that u can cast blades and arcane orbit simultaneously… it’s kinda a fun melee spec, but there is simply not enough damage to even consider it for anything above t16. given it’s melee , therefor with pretty low range, it’s also not useful for t16 though.
just my 2 cents… greetings scrya
(hope u guys yield some less disappointing results)
Since it’s an ability cast by a proc it won’t deal area damage. Same thing happens with manald heal and etched sigil.
The buff to AO damage should have been put on a bracer instead of being stacked on the Wizardspike.
Increase damage of AO by 350%, and increase explosion radius by 20 yards.
Then the broken and awful WizSpike could have stayed in the trash heap.
Nothing wrong with WizSpike. Now that it buffs AO by 350%, it’s fine. The lack of area damage kinda sucks, but it’s far better than most of our legendary items.
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Its awful as its another weapon slot. Like the Twister buffs… 4 weapons?
Triumvirate, Unstable, Wizardspike. I still count three. ET I count Twisted, Valthek’s and ES which is three as well.
The problem is your counting deathwish. I’m totally OK with Deathwish being axed and the other three weapon multipliers being raised.
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I’d rather have seen them just increase the multiplier that Unstable scepter gives. What’s wrong with a 24.75x multiplier? It’s just a number. That’s why it’s there; so you can tune it up or down as needed.
Radius increase on arcane orb would be amazing and would be worth placing another item for! 
The % chance on Wizardspike, while it’s better (seems to be ignoring proc coefficients now)… the procs don’t deal AD. They are about as useful as the Etched sigil proc’d Frozen orbs used to be, with less hassle.
This is just a recolor of a similar mechanic that used to be available for Channeled FO. It’s very neat when it happens… but why couldn’t the proc chance just be baked into Unstable scepter, if that’s the intent, and the multiplier increased on the Unstable scepter as well?
This way, all Frozen orb builds take advantage of this proc chance, instead of being forced into placing another weapon that feels lackluster effects wise.
Why take up a weapon slot without offering significant, game changing, advantageous impact to the skill? Something that a lot of players can get behind equipping, and want to equip it solely for the effect.
I’d even prefer the multiplier stay off this other weapon; that the weapon be equipped only for it’s effect.
For example:
- We all like having Doubled blasts from Unstable scepter
- Most players may like Radius increase; some may not, or prefer they have space for other choices.
Placing the multiplier only on Unstable scepter then makes more sense. This gives the playerbase more OPTIONS.
Im going to try the Legacy ES with the new WS tonight. Channeling and firing 2 AO:FO might be a thing with Deathwish…
I didnt notice a change in proc rate on WS tho when i tested a bit last night. I still seemed to be 1:9 while firing MM:Glacial which is a 1.0 proc skill. Maybe its had its proc rate removed, but it has an ICD??
I think that’s the biggest puzzlement I have with these changes. The skills that they’ve chosen to buff already had their own legendary items so why add more when they could’ve just buffed the existing ones? Especially when the new buffs don’t really change how the skill operates.
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Thanks!
But how to do so nowadays? (100 % electrocute)
your old push build variant: https://www.diablofans.com/builds/85743-2-4-3-gr91-tal-electrocute-manald-heal-aw-ew
=> today with LoD sth like https://ptr.d3planner.com/919242111 just for fun?
I don’t mind having three weapons/spec, as long there is valid decisions being made. Choices about what build, element and itemization there could be. The big issue, for me, is mobility; specifically Aetherwalker.
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Yeesh, these patch notes. It feels like the developers are making changes just so they can say they changed something, instead of actually working to create new builds.
The Etched Sigil change is the roughest. Tal Meteor Shower is what first got me interested in Wizard, and it’s still one of my favorite setups in the game. Now it’s completely gutted, along with dozens of other fun and flashy builds, all so Energy Twister can shine a bit brighter. Why couldn’t that damage increase go onto Twisted Sword instead? Let’s just hope this change isn’t retroactive when the patch goes live.
I’m similarly confused by the additions to Winter Flurry and Fragment of Destiny. Why are we balancing Hydra around items related to Cold and Primary skills? Hydra already has its own items and a dedicated set to balance around. I think the developers are trying to make that fourth Kanai’s Cube slot seem more appealing, but it’s just going to disappear at the end of the season.
Here’s hoping that Phase 2 brings some better changes, because right now the only thing that has me excited is Paragon granting pickup radius…
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I don’t mind either as long as the weapons provide a distinctive buff that’ll provide the skill a unique change (something besides more damage). That’s not really the case with the buffs to Hydra and Energy Twister. Using meteor as an example, if they ever buffed smoldering core with with perhaps:
The Smoldering Core:
Increase the size of meteors. Meteor deals 400-450% more damage.
This would give smoldering core a unique ability that’ll set it apart from the grand vizier. So if you opt for a pure meteor build you can choose to go with either the grand vizier, which thanks to the reduced arcane cost, will allow you to call forth more meteors, or the smoldering core, which grants your meteors a greater range. Of course, that’s assuming that the 4th kanai slot isn’t permenant.
No disagreements here.